How Green Are You?

[John Gutmann]

This can be moved if wanted for more discussion. But Basically I was wondering how "Green" People are. In other words how power efficient are you, your household, you car? This thread can can be a compliation of questions, or answers or a discussion or tips or whatever you guys want. I just thought it would be a interesting discussion.

Do you leave your lights on in your house?
What kind of bulbs do you use? What wattage? 3 way?
Do you have any light control units? (motion sensing, darkness sensing, etc)
Do you bother having outside lights on?
Do you currently own energy start appliances?
Do you plan on geting any? ^
Do you over use appliances?
Do you have neglectable use of appliances? (leaving tv on when your not there, etc)
Do you leave your computer on all night? (uses energy, creates heat)
Do you have window coverings? to block heat but let light in?
Do you have skylights? (helps with natural lighting)
Do you have bulky appliances? (too big of a tv, etc)
Do you leave your AC on?
Do you leave your heat on?
What temp is your house at? Have you considered changing it a few degrees?
Do you use cold water in your washing machine? Warm water? Scaulding?
How long is your shower? Water temp?
Do you use fans?
How many gallons per flush does your toilette use?
How often do you vaccuum?
Do you have solar panels? Wind Turbine?
How gas efficent is your car? What type of gas do you use? Do you drive in a fuel efficient way? Auto or standard?
how ofter do you mow your lawn? Type of mower? (bigger is more $ for up keep and more gas)
How much land do you mow? Do you let cows cut your grass for you? Sheep?
Warn or cold water when you do dishes in the sink? When you wash your hands?
Do you over produce food? (make too much)
Eat more natural foods? (fruit, veggies, lower production costs, lower production energy before it hits the consumer)
Is your AC unit on the roof? (Cold air falls)
Is your heater in the basement? (heat rises)
Do you have a deck?
Have you used recycled materials for anything in your home?
How much does a kWHr cost in your area?

I will add more questions if I can think of any also feel free to add any.

-John

[Peter Matteson]

I design geothermal power plants and also help out the fuel cell guys across the hall.

Oh and I worked on a product the uses an absorbtion chiller running off the waste heat exhausted from micro turbines to heat and cool buildings and potable water at the same time.

If you're interested check out www.utcpower.com

Pete

[whytheheckme]

I am extremely energy un-conscious. I'm sorry to say that I am.

The following references are to me personally, and not my general household.

Do you leave your lights on in your house? - Yes, in my cubicle
What kind of bulbs do you use? What wattage? 3 way? - Fluorescent
Do you have any light control units? (motion sensing, darkness sensing, etc) - No
Do you bother having outside lights on? - Yes in front of my driveway (motion)
Do you currently own energy star appliances? - 2 of my monitors are energy *, along with my dishwasher
Do you plan on geting any? ^ - my washer and dryer work just fine...
Do you over use appliances? - I only wash dishes and laundry as often as I have to...
Do you have neglectable use of appliances? (leaving tv on when your not there, etc) - The two TVs in my room are on all day and all night with bloomberg and Fox News
Do you leave your computer on all night? (uses energy, creates heat) - I have 14 computers that run in my cubicle; 8 of them are full time (servers). I try to shut of monitors that are not in use, but status monitors must stay up.
Do you have window coverings? to block heat but let light in? - No
Do you have skylights? (helps with natural lighting) - Yes I do have skylights in my room, but my cubicle blocks out all natural light
Do you have bulky appliances? (too big of a tv, etc) - most of my appliances are small, except for my large gaming monitor (21" CRT (for better gaming))
Do you leave your AC on? - Yes, to cool the servers
Do you leave your heat on? - No.
What temp is your house at? Have you considered changing it a few degrees? - I try to keep my cubicle at ~ 57 degrees all year round.
Do you use cold water in your washing machine? Warm water? Scaulding? - Warm
How long is your shower? Water temp? - I take really long showers (~30-35 minutes) I prefer the hottest temp.
Do you use fans? - We do have a whole-house fan.
How many gallons per flush does your toilette use? - 1
How often do you vaccuum? - Whats a vaccuum?
Do you have solar panels? Wind Turbine? - No
How gas efficent is your car? What type of gas do you use? Do you drive in a fuel efficient way? Auto or standard? - My mom's car gets about 25 miles to the gallon, auto; my dad's also gets about 25 mpg, standard
how ofter do you mow your lawn? Type of mower? (bigger is more $ for up keep and more gas) - twice a month - sit down tractor
How much land do you mow? Do you let cows cut your grass for you? Sheep? - about an acre
Warn or cold water when you do dishes in the sink? When you wash your hands? - dishwasher runs warm, hands I dont care
Do you over produce food? (make too much) - Never. I always eat all my food
Eat more natural foods? (fruit, veggies, lower production costs, lower production energy before it hits the consumer) - No, almost everything I eat comes in some kind of package
Is your AC unit on the roof? (Cold air falls) - No, Its a custom setup
Is your heater in the basement? (heat rises) - No heater
Do you have a deck? - Yes
Have you used recycled materials for anything in your home? - My cubicle is built out of recylced cardboard
How much does a kWHr cost in your area? - bout 20 cents

After going through this, I really am sorry to say that I am not green at all.....

[Schnabel]

Do you leave your lights on in your house? Not normally
What kind of bulbs do you use? What wattage? 3 way? Mostly florescent. Equivalent to 40 watt (18 maybe?).
Do you have any light control units? (motion sensing, darkness sensing, etc) Inside no, outside yes.
Do you bother having outside lights on? Only the back garage light with motion sensor.
Do you currently own energy start appliances?Yes
Do you plan on geting any? Not really, only if I need one.
Do you over use appliances? Sometimes
Do you have neglectable use of appliances? (leaving tv on when your not there, etc) Yes
Do you leave your computer on all night? (uses energy, creates heat) No
Do you have window coverings? to block heat but let light in? Yes
Do you have skylights? (helps with natural lighting) Yes
Do you have bulky appliances? (too big of a tv, etc) No
Do you leave your AC on? Nope, never even use it really.
Do you leave your heat on? No
What temp is your house at? Have you considered changing it a few degrees? Summer 79, Winter 59, no.
Do you use cold water in your washing machine? Warm water? Scaulding? Cold
How long is your shower? Water temp? ~15min. Warm
Do you use fans? All the time.
How many gallons per flush does your toilette use? ~1
How often do you vaccuum? Once a Week
Do you have solar panels? Wind Turbine? No
How gas efficent is your car? What type of gas do you use? Do you drive in a fuel efficient way? Auto or standard? 25+ mpg. Regular, yes, auto.
how ofter do you mow your lawn? Type of mower? (bigger is more $ for up keep and more gas) 1-2 times a week. Push.
How much land do you mow? Do you let cows cut your grass for you? Sheep? >1 acre
Warn or cold water when you do dishes in the sink? When you wash your hands?warm, no preference
Do you over produce food? (make too much) If I do, I eat it as leftovers.
Eat more natural foods? (fruit, veggies, lower production costs, lower production energy before it hits the consumer) Yes
Is your AC unit on the roof? (Cold air falls) No
Is your heater in the basement? (heat rises) No
Do you have a deck? No
Have you used recycled materials for anything in your home? Yes
How much does a kWHr cost in your area? ~35 cents I think.

[John Gutmann]

I made this thread hoping for a nice response. But I guess not! I didn't mean for you to answer all those questions 1 by 1 they were just things that came to mind. Like one thing I HATE is people leaving lights on. Because it is literally a WASTE of money and power. I jsut wanted to see if I could get people to think about their poer usage. Because even when I am at my friends houses it seems like they could even do stuff alot differently without alot of chaneg to save money and save power.

For example, just wrap your mind around this.
1 kWHr = using a 1000 watt thing for 1 hour
1 kWHr = using a 100 watt thing for 10 hours
1 kWHr = the power consumption * (1000 / power consuption) hours

So lets say you have a 60 Watt light bulb you leave on when you go to work, or to class then to work or whatever. You leave at 9 am and leave it on. You get home at 6 pm. That is 9 hours. 60 watts * 9 hours = 540 WHr. so that it one day.... SO what!? Jacob said a kWHr costs 20 cents in his area. So you just wasted .54 * .20 = $0.108. You wasted 11 cents!!!!! ok so lets say you do this every day of the month. 0.108$ * 31 = $3.348 you just wasted a whole freakin 3$ and change. OK, so what?! Lets say it is 2 lights now. them means you just wasted $6.696. Now lets say you have the same bulbs in 2 lights outside you have on all night (like man$13.y people in my neighborhood.) You just wasted $13.392. Oh now that looks a little bit more significant.

Oh so look I just saved you 160$ a year.....

Now lets look at something else. Xmas decorations......Oh yessss this will be fun!!! In my house we have those little decorations you put in the window that is basically a string of lights wrpped into some frame to make a little picture, like a snowman or star. My mom will put up like 6 of them assuming they use as much power as a normal strand of the mini bulbs it is 25 watts each. oh and this year she had some dear outside (stolen the night they were put out). lets say they had 2 strings each. now we had the net lights on our trees outside. 1 strand per net sounds good. Think they are like 10x10 (light count) with like 4-6 inches between lights. we had prolly about 6 out. then we had lights on our garage on out the house. I think my dad puts up 3 strings there. We also leave our tree on all night. ( I don't know why, I always turn it off ). my mom has about 4 strings on that. So what is the count up to. Oh and 1 light up tree outside. 1 string.

6 x window decor
2 x 2 x deer
6 x nets
3 x on house
4 x tree
total = 23 strings!!!!!

23 * 25 watts each = 575 WHr * 10 hours of darkness = 5750 watts = 5.75 kWHr * $0.20 per kWHr = $1.15

We are paying 1.15$ per night for xmas lights. for 1 month....that is 35.65 just for xmas lights.

If you get paid minimun wage you are working for 5 hours that month to pay for the xmas lights to be on.

Just a little food for thought.
How much power do you waste per day? per month? how much money do you waste?

by waste I mean by leaving a light on when you don't need it and stuff like that. etc.

EDIT: Oops it is 25 wats for a 50 light string so double those numbers 70$ in one month if your Eric Schnabel that is 124$ !!!!!

-John

[artdutra04]

I consider myself green. Not like an uber-excessive, tree-hugging fanatic, but rather just an environmentally conscious person.

I ride a Segway. (I'd also be inclined to use either my Segway or a bicycle to commute, if possible.)
I always try to recycle something if possible.
I plant a bunch of vegetables (like tomatoes, peppers) in my backyard. (Nothing beats chili with fresh vegetables!)
I'm inclined to use energy efficient products if available.
My television is a 22" LCD.
I generally drive in a fuel efficient manner.

But, like I said before I'm not an overly excessive fanatic.

I still take long showers, as they are usually where I like to just relax and think.
My mother drives an SUV, and my father two pickup trucks.
I leave the AC on a lot, and I usually have it turned pretty low. (Although I kinda balance it out in the winter by also leaving the heating temperature set low.)
We have a ton of Christmas lights on our house in the winter, usually the most on our street. (And they're up from Thanksgiving to FRC Kickoff Weekend.)

But when all is said and done, I end up on the green(er) side of the fence. Most of the green, environmentally stuff isn't that hard, and I honestly can't why see many people can't be bothered to do so. The best part is the environmentally friendly stuff that actually saves you money.

Is it really that hard to throw a recyclable item in the recycle bin as opposed to the garbage can? Or why is it that people cannot do simple math, and figure out that even though energy efficient products generally cost more they will more than pay for the extra cost in savings?

[John Gutmann]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

I consider myself green. Not like an uber-excessive, tree-hugging fanatic, but rather just an environmentally conscious person.

Same here. If I had the say I would have motion sensors and LED lightbulbs all through our house. Just from what I had shown above it would all pay for itself in about 2 years. if you look at this it shows that you can make up the difference in a year!!! I have probally upward of 30 lightbulbs in my house that can be on. As in lightbulbs in lamps. We don't ever use that many because we have a 4 bulb tiffany lamp and about 7 other lamps in the living room. But at 80 cents for a year, that is CHEAP. If you do leave it on for 12 hours a day you make that much money up in a month!

I just wanted to see people evaluate themselves and make them more concious. Because at first glance your like ohhh big deal I left a light on. but it really does add up. All I did was lightbulbs.

Just to make an example of somebody. If jacob comes back and checks I would like him to look at the power ratings of all his computers in his room and calculate how much power they use while he is not there not using them. Yes even the websever.

Then Look at your CRT tvs, CRT monitors, dishwashers (running 2 1/2 loads in stead of 1 full load), your.....fridge!!!! it is on literally 24/7. what is the power rating on your avg fridge? now what is the power rating on a energy * fridge.

I would love to do a study that looks at a "energy efficient house" and a normal house under normal use. Plus maybe a few more. A normal house, then a house with energy concious people and the same 2 for the "energy efficient". To see the differences in power usage on money. I am sure you could drastically cut the cost.

Also just out of curiousity, how much is your electric bill, and how often do you pay it? monthly? or every 3 months?

[Schnabel]

Originally Posted by John Gutmann

EDIT: Oops it is 25 wats for a 50 light string so double those numbers 70$ in one month if your Eric Schnabel that is 124$ !!!!!

-John

The funny thing about that is during the holiday season, the only Christmas decoration my family puts up is our fiber optic tree. We only leave it on when we turn it on, which can range from 0-2 hours a night (mostly 0). So basically, we hardly ever turn Christmas lights on. Plus when we have it on, we turn the T.V., lights, and anything else off, so we basically save with it.

[alphaone]

Erm.. my car gets 35mpg, and I try to use as little electricity as possible to keep the bill down.. But that's about all I can say for me. Aircraft are pretty fuel thirsty. They do go quite fast however which makes up for it.

[whytheheckme]

Originally Posted by John Gutmann

So lets say you have a 60 Watt light bulb you leave on when you go to work, or to class then to work or whatever. You leave at 9 am and leave it on. You get home at 6 pm. That is 9 hours. 60 watts * 9 hours = 540 WHr. so that it one day.... SO what!? Jacob said a kWHr costs 20 cents in his area. So you just wasted .54 * .20 = $0.108. You wasted 11 cents!!!!! ok so lets say you do this every day of the month. 0.108$ * 31 = $3.348 you just wasted a whole freakin 3$ and change. OK, so what?! Lets say it is 2 lights now. them means you just wasted $6.696. Now lets say you have the same bulbs in 2 lights outside you have on all night (like man$13.y people in my neighborhood.) You just wasted $13.392. Oh now that looks a little bit more significant.

Oh so look I just saved you 160$ a year.....

Yeah....

Our electric bill is usually about $260 USD a month +/-.

Our december bill was almost $500 USD

We don't use propane or oil or gas or anything though..... Just wood pellets for the stoves in the winter (which still have electrically driven augers)

Jacob

[Viper37]

Do you leave your lights on in your house?Yes
What kind of bulbs do you use? What wattage? 3 way? Mostly 60 Watt's, a few 100 Watt's and 4 3-ways
Do you have any light control units? (motion sensing, darkness sensing, etc)Yes
Do you bother having outside lights on? Not often
Do you currently own energy start appliances?one
Do you plan on geting any? if what I buy is one, then yes.
Do you over use appliances?no
Do you have neglectable use of appliances? (leaving tv on when your not there, etc)yes
Do you leave your computer on all night? (uses energy, creates heat)yes
Do you have window coverings? to block heat but let light in?yes
Do you have skylights? (helps with natural lighting)yes
Do you have bulky appliances? (too big of a tv, etc)yes
Do you leave your AC on?no
Do you leave your heat on?no
What temp is your house at? Have you considered changing it a few degrees?75-80 no
Do you use cold water in your washing machine? Warm water? Scaulding?cold-warm
How long is your shower? Water temp?20 min 106F
Do you use fans?yes
How many gallons per flush does your toilette use?1
How often do you vaccuum?Often, my mother is OCD
Do you have solar panels? Wind Turbine?no
How gas efficent is your car? What type of gas do you use? Do you drive in a fuel efficient way? Auto or standard?318 2 Barrel Ram 1500 440 6 Barrel Dodge Challenger. 87 Octane in the Ram, 91 octane in the Challenger. You cant drive efficiently with V8's. Ram is automatic, Challenger 4 Speed Hurst
how ofter do you mow your lawn? Type of mower? (bigger is more $ for up keep and more gas)Once a Week, Craftsman Push mower
How much land do you mow? Do you let cows cut your grass for you? Sheep?maybe 1/8 of an acre
Warn or cold water when you do dishes in the sink? When you wash your hands?Varies
Do you over produce food? (make too much)yes
Eat more natural foods? (fruit, veggies, lower production costs, lower production energy before it hits the consumer)no
Is your AC unit on the roof? (Cold air falls)no
Is your heater in the basement? (heat rises)no
Do you have a deck?no
Have you used recycled materials for anything in your home? im not sure
How much does a kWHr cost in your area?not sure.

[Vexkingof716]

In my house almost all of our lights are florecent. I also just happen to live on a farm with a Methane Digester which creates hot water in a methane furnace so all of my hot water for the house and farm is not made with fossil fuels.